Preventing Dementia with Plantfoods

By Edward Esko

The mechanism behind the power of coffee and other plant foods to prevent dementia is simple. An excess of protein coming from yang animal sources forms dense and compact Lewy bodies. Coffee, a product of equatorial zones, has the opposite energy; expansive, dispersive, and yin. Coffee thus cancels the process in which Lewy bodies form. Caffeine, EHT, and phe­nylindanes stimulate the ac­tivity of catalysts that prevent accumulation of proteins in the brain. In biochemical terms, these compounds “reduce [yin] the aggre­gation [yang] of the misfolded alpha-synu­clein pro­teins that are linked to LBD and Parkinson’s dis­ease.”

Other yin, plant-derived foods and beverages have similar prop­erties. A recent article in medicaldaily.com, entitled “4 Best Drinks to Fight Dementia: Drinking Tea Daily Re­duces Risk of Cognitive Decline by 50 Percent in Old Age,” summarized the findings:

Researchers from the National University of Sin­gapore suggest drinking tea daily can improve brain health later in life, and even reduce the risk of demen­tia. “The data from our study suggests that a simple and inexpensive lifestyle measure such as daily tea drinking can reduce a person’s risk of developing neu­rocognitive disorders in late life,” said Lei Feng, as­sistant professor of psychological medicine at the Na­tional University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

These discoveries are instructive in that they confirm the macrobiotic principle of balance and harmony, which we refer to as yin and yang. Yin, plant derived foods and beverages have powerful protective effects due to their ability to can­cel the potentially harmful effects of yang animal foods. One by one, science will discover the bene­ficial effects that plant foods have on preventing the en­tire spectrum of animal food caused disorders. However, in macrobiotics, we go one step further. We are not promot­ing coffee or any other single food or beverage, nor are we con­tent with reducing the effects of animal food. Rather we seek to eliminate these effects entirely through a plant-based diet. When it comes to cognitive disorders such as Parkinson’s, Lewy body dementia, and Alzheimer’s, an ounce of pre­vention is worth a pound of cure.